Officials with the Calgary Public Library are overwhelmed by the support the ‘Twenty Thousand Books Under The Bow’ campaign received on Saturday.
The book drive, a play on the title of the Jules Verne classic, asked Calgarians to donate books, DVDs and CDs at any of the branches of the Calgary Public Library. The donated items will be sold with all proceeds going towards the purchase of materials for the libraries.
“It’s been incredible,” says Paul McIntyre Royston, CEO of Calgary Public Library. “Before the event started, we actually had over 20,000 books donated, that’s our estimate and, now that the event’s on, we’re seeing hundreds of boxes.”
“I think one branch has a thousand boxes already, and that’s about 20 to 30 books per box.”
Lindsay Wordsworth was among the Calgarians who donated to the cause.
“We heard that they needed books, we had extra books so we thought we’d bring them down,” says Wordsworth. “They’re being donated for a good reason after the public library downtown was destroyed by water.”
It’s estimated the Calgary Public Library lost nearly 20,000 items in June’s flooding.
Workers continue to repair the flood damaged central library which is set to reopen in September.
“We're still working to get our elevators functioning, our fire alarms back in action and creating a new temporary materials processing area on the main floor to get our customers back to a partial reopening and to get our central library back up and running,” says Calgary Public Library's April Serink.
During the closure of the central library, staff have been redeployed to branches throughout the city.
